Odd Briefs

PAGO PAGO, American Samoa -- Two corrections officers at American Samoa's only jail are suspected of letting inmates leave to go on beer and food runs.

Officers Fiti Aina and Rocky Tua were charged this week with aiding the escape of a prisoner, permitting escape, and public servant acceding to corruption.

A police search at Territorial Correctional Facility in July turned up beer in an inmate's cell.

Police said that while trying to find out how it got there, they learned the officers were sending inmates unsupervised to a nearby store. One inmate allowed out is serving 40 months for assaulting another man with a machete.

Court documents say an inmate told investigators he bought beer for another inmate and chips and cookies for Tua.

Aina and Tua were each held on $10,000 bail.

'Batman' charged with obstructing Michigan police

PETOSKEY, Mich. -- The search for a driver who fled an accident scene in northern Michigan last weekend was a job for a dog, not a bat.

State troopers arrested 33-year-old Mark Wayne Williams because they say he refused to leave them alone after he showed up on Sept. 29 wearing a Batman outfit.

"He wouldn't clear the scene, and we had a canine out there and he kept screwing up the scent," State Police Sgt. Jeff Gorno told the Petoskey News-Review. "He said he wanted to help us look for the driver."

"We didn't want the dog to track Batman instead of the accident scene, and he was getting in the way of officers who had a job to do," the sergeant said.

Williams wasn't carrying any dangerous weapons, but his costume and gear were confiscated, Gorno said. He was charged with resisting and obstructing police in an investigation, and he posted bond and was released from the county jail. He is due back in court Oct. 18.

He was also arrested in 2011 after police received a report of a man dressed as Batman on the roof of a Petoskey business. When officers arrived, they found Williams, dressed as Batman and carrying a baton-type striking weapon, a can of chemical irritant spray and a pair of sand-filled gloves.

He pleaded guilty to one count of attempted resisting and obstructing a police officer and was sentenced to six months of probation during which he was forbidden to wear costumes, including his Batman get-up.

Dog survives 110-mile ride on pickup's engine

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. -- A dog survived a 110-mile ride on the hot engine of a pickup truck during a Southern California heat wave.

The driver of a Chevrolet Silverado felt the pickup move slightly after he stopped in San Clemente on Monday. He had just driven from Chino to Orange and Camp Pendleton.

The Orange County Register said 52-year-old Jaime Magana noticed fur above the left front tire and he opened the hood to find a 25-pound dog atop the engine.

Magana called for help and an animal control officer put the dog, nicknamed Chevy, into her air conditioned truck. It perked right up.

Up to 100 starlings dead after flying into car

VIENNA -- A mass collision between a flock of starlings and a car on a stretch of Austrian expressway left up to 100 of the birds dead and the driver shaken but unhurt.

The Austria Press Agency said the birds suddenly flew from power lines above the multi-lane highway in western Austria downward and directly into the path of the car.

The report did not say how fast the car was traveling Monday. The car sustained numerous dents.